*   The Kubelet's feature gates are now specified as a map when provided via a JSON or YAML KubeletConfiguration, rather than as a string of key-value pairs, making them less awkward for users. ([#53025](https://github.com/kubernete...

If no, just write "NONE" in the release-note block below.
If yes, a release note is required:
Enter your extended release note in the block below. If the PR requires additional action from users switching to the new release, include the string "action required".

For more information on release notes see: https://git.k8s.io/community/contributors/guide/release-notes.md
-->
```release-note

```

* Fix a bug where kubelet would not retry pod sandbox creation when the restart policy of the pod is Never ([#79451](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/79451), [@yujuhong](https://github.com/yujuhong))

correct these files before upgrading.** When specifying keys in JSON resource definitions during direct API server communication, the keys are case-sensitive. A bug introduced in Kubernetes 1.8 caused the API server to accept a request with incorrect case and coerce it to correct case, but this behaviour has been fixed in 1.11 and the API server will once again be enforcing the correct case. It’s worth noting that during this time, the `kubectl` tool continued to enforce case-sensitive keys, so users that...

## Known Issues

* If you need to downgrade from 1.10 to 1.9.x, downgrade to v1.9.6 to ensure PV and PVC objects can be deleted properly.

- Respect annotation size limit for server-side apply updates to the client-side apply annotation. Also, fix opt-out of this behavior by setting the client-side apply annotation to the empty string. ([#102105](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/102105), [@julianvmodesto](https://github.com/julianvmodesto)) [SIG API Machinery]

- Kubeadm: fix a bug where file copy(backup) could not be executed correctly on Windows platform during upgrade ([#117861](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/117861), [@SataQiu](https://github.com/SataQiu)) [SIG Cluster Lifecycle]

* Remove 0,1,3 from rand.String, to avoid 'bad words' ([#50070](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/50070), [@dixudx](https://github.com/dixudx))
* Fix data race during addition of new CRD ([#50098](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/50098), [@nikhita](https://github.com/nikhita))

- The client label for apiserver_request_count and apiserver_request_total now no-opts and merely records an empty string. ([#87673](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/87673), [@logicalhan](https://github.com/logicalhan)) [SIG API Machinery, Instrumentation and Scalability]


<!-- NEW RELEASE NOTES ENTRY -->

## Changelog since v1.12.9

### Other notable changes

* Default resourceGroup should be used when the value of annotation azure-load-balancer-resource-group is an empty string. ([#79514](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/79514), [@feiskyer](https://github.com/feiskyer))